Today on the BRS 160 we are going plumb this tank.
Hey guys my name is Ryan, welcome to another week of the BRS 160 where every week we do
our best to help you guys, members of the reefing community enjoy your tanks and find
new ways to explore the hobby.
We do that by following the set up and progression of this one hundred and sixty gallon reef
tank.
This week we are going we are going to talk about the four types of overflows, give you
some tips on installing a custom overflow including drilling the glass, Various plumbing
pieces, return pumps and then plumb our reef savvy ghost overflow to the sump.
An overflow is used to get water from the aquarium safely down to the sump and they
come in a few different types.
Your typical reef ready tank comes with an overflow already installed; you can buy a
hang on overflow or install a custom overflow for standard or non-reef ready tanks.
There are also tanks like the Nuvo from innovative marine which have a small sump built into
the back of the tank that doesn't require any real plumbing.
If plumbing a tank is a bit intimidating or you don’t want to spend the time or expense
plumbing a tank this is a solid option which gives many of the benefits without the hassle
or expense.
The easiest option for adding an overflow to a standard tank is a Hang on option but
they’re pretty unpopular these days because they work by creating a siphon that goes over
the edge of the tank which works great as long as the siphon never breaks but as we
discussed last week on a long enough time line everything breaks and in this case when
it does water is going to go all over your floor.
Some of the hang on models have a pump to keep the siphon going but there is still room
for failure here.
So while some reefers do use them they have become much less popular in the last decade
as reefers have shifted to reef ready tanks and custom overflows.
Reef ready tanks have the overflow towers preinstalled; holes are drilled in the bottom
pane of glass and come with all the plumbing which makes them the most popular choice by
far.
Just follow the plumbing assembly directions and you are done.
however some smaller tanks like the forty gallon breeder don't have a reef ready version
and some of us have some special desires for our overflows on larger tanks so building
or buying our own custom overflows is the only option.
CPR makes a couple of nice options for DIY overflows, the style that uses a backing requires
the use of multiple gaskets between the bulkhead, overflow backing and glass.
The overflow with no back will be silicone directly to the aquarium glass.
As to which one is best it really comes down to which one you trust to be leak free over
many years.
Thousands of reefers have used silicone like this without issue but silicone bonded to
acrylic isn't really ideal.
In my option the gaskets are the best long term solution, harder to mess up and look
cleaner.
This is a personal preference but I prefer these overflow boxes to the stock overflow
towers on reef ready tanks because the boxes take up less space in the tank and look less
intrusive but there is one big difference.
The plumbing is going to come out of the back of the tank rather than the bottom of the
tank.
Which means the tank will have to be a few inches out from the wall unless you do something
like we’re doing here where we cut out a hole in the wall for the tank.
How important it is for the tank to be flush to the wall is a personal preference and likely
based on where it is located in your home.
one other option is these newer custom overflows from companies like synergy reef and reef
savvy which have an ultra-low profile box on the inside and the plumbing in a box on
the outside of the tank.
These look super sharp inside the tank which is the most important thing to me and I am
personally willing to trade that for putting the tank a few inches off the wall if needed.
There are three main ways to plumb your overflow.
All of which are designed to help make it silent, safe and prevent gurgling.
All three are named after the reefer who made it popular with the doors, Herbie and bean
animal.
The doors standpipe uses a single overflow standpipe with a vent whole and adjustable
air valve in the top.
This allows you to fine tune a small amount of air into the overflow.
Without the air vent the pipe would pull a full siphon which will continually start and
stop with a ton of really loud gurgling.
When we add the small hole with a valve we can fine tune a small amount of air into the
stand pipe to regulate the flow rate of water and drastically reduce the amount of noise
created by the overflow.
This is the style over overflow which most reef ready tanks come with pluming for.
Hobbyists have worked to further improve on that to make it safer and even quieter with
the Herbie overflow.
The herby uses two overflows a primary and an emergency.
Rather than use air to control the water like the doors does it uses a gate valve to fine
tune the flow of water to a complete siphon with no air getting sucked in which basically
makes it completely silent.
The second emergency overflow is required just in case something like a fish, snail
or chunk of algae got sucked into the main overflow and reduced flow.
While most reef ready tanks come with plumbing for a doors style overflow they typically
have two holes drilled in the bottom so you can upgrade to an herby style overflow if
you want without a lot of hassle.
to step that up one more notch the bean animal combines both of these together to achieve
something that is ultra-silent , ultra-safe and really easy to tune.
The bean animal uses gate valve on the primary overflow, a secondary stability overflow with
a hole drilled in it which is capable of accounting for small fluctuations in water flow while
never creating a full siphon and an emergency overflow which will handle the water it something
happens to the other two.
The bean animal is really the gold standard these days and what most of us want to use
if we can.
For a bean animal you are going to have to get a custom tank made for you or drill your
own holes in a standard tank.
Drilling your own holes in the tank which can seem intimidating but it’s really pretty
easy as long as the tank isn't tempered glass.
Tempered glass cannot be drilled and will shatter if you try.
Most tank backs are not tempered but make sure to ask the store you bought it from or
the contact the manufacture.
We sell inexpensive diamond coated glass drill bits and drill guides for drilling these holes
as well as the bulkheads.
You are cutting glass so use your safety goggles and gloves.
Mark your holes which should be a couple inches from the edge and each other and set up your
drill guide.
We need to keep the drill bit and glass cool so put a ring of plumbers putty or clay on
glass and fill the area with water.
Even better do this outdoors and run a hose on the area while you do the work.
On the underside of the glass apply some masking tape to catch the glass disk the hole saw
cuts out.
The tape makes it somewhat easier to make a clean hole as well.
You should also throw down a shop towel below to catch water or the glass disk if it does
fall.
You will want to run the drill on a fairly high speed which makes a corded drill best
but a cordless drill on high speed will work as well.
Start the drill and bring it down to start the cut, bring the drill down slow at medium
speed and apply almost no pressure, let the bit do the work for you.
Some of you may find it easier to apply the correct amount of pressure if you remove the
springs from the drill guide.
Stop every twenty seconds or so to make sure the bit is still cool and add more water if
needed.
It should take a few minutes to get about 3/4’s of the way through.
The last forth of the way you should make sure you are not applying any pressure just
let the drill bit cut through the glass and do the work for you.
This last part should also take a few minutes.
Right before you break through to the other side is the most important time to apply as
little pressure as possible so the hole on the other side is clean.
This might still sound a bit intimidating but after the first hole you will feel like
a pro because it’s really a lot easier than it looks.
There are a lot of different types of plumbing fittings, valves and methods common to aquariums
starting with soft tubing and hard plc.
plumbing.
Soft tubing is the easiest and most forgiving solution.
Uses barbed insert fittings to connect the pieces and these ratchet clamps to insure
a water tight seal.
The most popular type of tubing for this is the reinforced braided tubing because it is
much less likely to kink than other types.
It is super important that the tubing never kinks because it could cut your tank off from
the life support equipment in the sump or overflow the tank on to the floor.
This braided has a natural bend to it from being coiled which can be somewhat difficult
to work with, best way to deal with the bend is heat it up by soaking it in a bath of super-hot
water.
If you are careful not to overdo it you can also use a heat gun.
There are a few advantages to going with hard PVC plumbing.
It is literally impossible to kink, doesn't have that bend to it, it doesn't allow any
light through so algae can’t grow inside, it’s easier to manifold and frankly it just
looks a lot cooler.
While aesthetics might not be critical to everyone to many reefers it’s important
that the equipment side of the tank looks just as cool as the display itself.
If you go PVC you can go white which is found at basically every big box hardware store,
schedule eighty pipe which is a reinforced industrial grey or colored pipe which comes
in blue green , yellow , red , orange you name it.
Fittings come in the typical white versions found at the hardware store.
we stock these low profile beveled edge white fittings and the reinforced schedule 80 industrial
grey fittings.
Quick overview of the basic fitting names.
A slip fitting is designed to have a pipe glued directly into the fitting using a primer
and solvent.
a threaded fitting is designed to have other fittings screwed directly into them with Teflon
tape.
Any Teflon tape will probably work but it comes in different densities, widths and qualities.
Easiest way to identify the density and quality is to give it a quick squeeze, if it is smooshy
its probably a lower density and quality, if it is hard or clearly states high density
on the packaging it is probably a high quality tape.
We stock this three quarter inch size I find a bit easier to use on larger fittings.
Another popular type of fitting is the street fitting which has a spigot side that is directly
inserted into other fittings and valves.
When ever possible I try and use street fittings because they are lower profile, save on space
and I don't have to cut and glue the small connector pieces.
Similar to that you can find other spigot fittings which transition into barbed ends
for connection to soft tubing, spigot fittings which transition a male threaded end and spigots
which can can be inserted to change the side of the opening to smaller sizes called bushings
which come in both slip and female threaded options.
Another popular fitting is unions which come in slip and threaded versions.
These are used create a break in the pipe so you can disassemble your pluming for maintenance,
cleaning , valve replacement or even to change some of your plumbing for new equipment without
cutting everything apart.
One huge side advantage of using unions is you don't have to be concerned about glueing
the fittings on to the pipe at the perfect angle which is pretty easy and frustrating
mistake.
With unions you can just loosen the connection and adjust as needed.
If you are going to go through the trouble to hard plumb your tank do yourself a favor
and put unions anywhere you can.
I promise you wont regret it and will be happy they are there when you need to use them.
there are three four main types of values, gate valves , ball valves , check valves and
needle valves.
Gate valves have a gate that slowly drops as you spin a handle and used make precise
adjustments to water flow and great for applications like our bean animal overflow where we are
fine tuning the flow to precisely match the water pumped into the tank.
ball valves are primarily designed as a shut off valve for simple on off function.
They can be used to adjust flow rates with bit of trial and error if needed or create
artificial head pressure by partially closing them as well.
both gate and ball valves can be found in white at most hardware stores.
These valves are inexpensive and work when you originally install them but the ball valves
in particular become increasingly hard to turn as time goes on.
Often almost impossible after a few years.
these cepex valves are more expensive but turn consistently fluidly now and in the future.
They also come with unions installed on both ends for easy removal and a key you can use
to tighten the seal which means this valve is almost certainly going to outlast the tank
it is installed on.
Check valves are used to prevent siphons and the back flow of water particularly on your
returns so water doesn't drain from the tank through the returns and overflow the sump
when the power goes out.
check valves are not perfect and can can fail if something gets stuck on the surface of
the seal.
The best way to prevent siphoning when the return pump is off is to make sure your returns
are positioned just slightly below the water level.
So check valves are really more of a redundancy valve that protects you if your returns were
ever to get bumped lower than they should be as well as a convenience that keeps the
tank full as possible during maintenance.
Check valves come in a variety of forms but the most popular are the flapper and wye designs.
The flapper versions are the least expensive and often come with unions which makes them
pretty popular but are hard to clean and maintenance.
The wye design allows you to unscrew and clean the seal and seat.
Not only makes this type of valve more reliable but ability to maintenance it also means the
valve is likely to outlast the tank itself.
last type of valve is a needle valve.
these are designed to regulate flow down the a slow drip.
There are not a lot of needs for this type of thing but there are some specialized applications
like calcium reactors where they can come in handy.
once you get all your pluming together Glueing PVC is pretty easy but there are some steps
a lot of people skip.
All this plumbing is not cheep and fixing leaks often means cutting it all apart and
we want avoid that so my advice is do not skip steps.
You can use a variety of saws or specialized tools to cut your PVC.
I like to use these cheep miter boxes to keep the cuts strait.
Once you have a cut edge take a piece of sandpaper to remove burrs and irregularities from the
edge.
if you don't remove them the burrs can create groves in the solvent when you slide the pipe
in and result in leaks.
When we glue the pipe and fittings together what we are really doing is using a solvent
to chemically bond the the surface of the pipe and fitting together.
First step of that process is applying a primer which softens the surface of the pipe and
fitting to get it ready for that chemical bond.
Use the applicator to liberally apply primer to both fitting and pipe.
Shortly after apply the pvc cement to both fitting and pipe as well.
When you insert the pipe push it completely into the fitting while giving it a quarter
turn.
Once it hits the end of the fitting Hold it there tightly for fifteen seconds or so.
The bonding process causes the plastic to swell and it will push the pipe out slightly
if you don't hold it in there tightly.
Accurate measurements and an ideal bond requires the pipe to be fully inserted into the pipe.
After that allow the bond to cure for twenty for hours and it is ready for water.
Make sure you dry fit the entire project before you start gluing and mark the pipe and fittings
on all the elbows so you know the exact angle they need to be glued at.
The use of unions can remove the marking and angle requirements with elbows which makes
the whole project a lot easier and increases the chances doing this right the first time.
the last piece of pluming we are going to cover today is loc-line . this is a modular
tubing option most often used for returns where the water is pumped back into the tank.
There are a variety of different nozzles, shut of valves, check valves, y’s and comes
in half and three quarter inch options.
Last bit of plumbing is the return pump selection.
You are going to want something quiet and reliable.
Both of these things are a matter of perspective.
Every pump makes some amount of noise.
How quiet a pump is is really just a comparison to other pumps at the same price point.
I would make sure to read the reviews of the pump you are looking at because nothing is
more important than real reefers experiences.
We have attempted to make this a bit easier for you by being pretty selective about the
brands we stock and only offering the ones we recommend.
The quiet one from life guard is a great lower cost option and what the team here at BRS
recommends for the most affordable pumps.
The syncra silent series by sicce is probably the most trusted brand out there and what
most of us personally use whenever we can.
There are some newer DC pumps out there which have some unique advantages one of which is
most are basically silent, there is almost no chance you could hear them over the other
equipment in your sump.
They are often very small for the flow size and have unique controllability options.
Like many emerging technologies there have been a lot of new DC pumps entering the reefing
scene in the last couple years.
We feel like the waveline brand has surfaced as the best affordable option.
Also pretty exciting is ecotech just about to release their DC return pump which is sure
to have a whole laundry list of features never seen in our industry before.
Ok so lets get to plumbing this tank.
we are going to use PVC plumbing because it is the most reliable, has the most options
and simply looks the best as well.
We selected grey schedule eighty fittings and blue pipe which is my personal favorite
color combination.
First step was to plumb the overflow box with a bean animal variant overflow.
Inside the box there is a couple elbows used to create the primary siphon.
The second is our stability pipe and similar to the first but about three quarters of an
inch taller and has a hole drilled in the top to prevent a full siphon.
It is important that the top and hole of the stability overflow is positioned low enough
that it would still get fully submerged if the primary overflow started to back up.
The third is our emergency with an open pipe about a half inch taller than the top of the
other two but sill lower than the top of the overflow box.
the primary overflow is plumbed to the tank with a gate valve, stability overflow is installed
right next to it and the emergency overflow is plumbed to the filtration area of the tank.
We install the emergency overflow here because it will make a lot of noise when it splashes
down and let us know there is an issue we need to fix with the primary if something
clogged it.
You can also see we installed quite a few unions to make installation and maintenance
is easy.
For the return pump went with the new vectra from ecotech.
I have never used this pump which makes it somewhat odd selection for a build series
like this but ecotech is one of the few companies in this industry who has a long track record
of success and they have built a lot of trust with me over the years so I am pretty confident
this is going to be the best return pump I have used once we get this tank filled with
water and turn it on.
I look forward to reviewing it with you once the tank is full.
noticed we installed a short piece of silicone tubing between pump and the start of our hard
plumbing.
this will completely eliminate any vibration transfer from the pump to the hard plumbing.
This is more important with AC pumps than DC pumps but a good idea regardless.
Off of that we plumbed the sump to both return points.
locline inside the tank to disperse the water.
You can see the check valve for redundancy, down here we plumbed a series of valves as
a manifold we can use to feed equipment as we add it.
If needed we will use the ball valves here to create some head pressure to drive the
items plumbed to the manifold.
Also notice the pipe clamps we used to hold everything securely in place.
These aren’t absolutely required in most cases but a nice added touch.
The plumbing here archives all of our goals with quiet operation, redundancy, maintainable
and room to add new equipment or upgrade in the future with the manifold.
Not to mention looks pretty cool as well.
Next week are going to talk about electrical needs for the tank and install our solution
which you dont want to miss.
The following week we are going to get water into the tank so hit that subscribe button.
If you are interested in learning more about the products we discussed in this weeks episode
you can check them out by clicking this link.
see you next week with week 6 of the BRS 160 electrical.